A Persuasion Fashion Show

"If I thought it would not tempt her to go out in sharp winds, and grow coarse, I would send her a new hat and pelisse." Persuasion chapter 15

Event:       JASNA CWNY September Meeting
Topic:       A Persuasion Fashion Show that will be presented at the 2018 AGM by Lisa Brown, former Regional Coordinator

When:       Saturday September 15, 2018 at 1 pm

Where:      Pittsford Barnes and Noble, Community Room

Let other pens dwell on the fashions of the Regency. I certainly do not find the topic odious in any way, but I know better than to write on something about which I know very little. Fashion is much too important a part of Jane Austen's work to leave it in inexpert hands. Lisa will provide us with a sumptuous view of the fashions relevant to Persuasion.

Perhaps we will hear about a pelisse or a gown:

“"How is Mary looking?" said Sir Walter, in the height of his good humour. "The last time I saw her she had a red nose, but I hope that may not happen every day."

"Oh! no, that must have been quite accidental. In general she has been in very good health and very good looks since Michaelmas."

"If I thought it would not tempt her to go out in sharp winds, and grow coarse, I would send her a new hat and pelisse."

Anne was considering whether she should venture to suggest that a gown, or a cap, would not be liable to any such misuse, when a knock at the door suspended everything.  Persuasion chapter 15

Or, maybe about boots:

"The rain was a mere trifle, and Anne was most sincere in preferring a walk with Mr. Elliot. But the rain was also a mere trifle to Mrs. Clay; she would hardly allow it even to drop at all, and her boots were so thick! much thicker than Miss Anne's..." Persuasion chapter 19

However, it must be acknowledged that the most pivotal moment in the book revolves around an article of men’s clothing, a pair of gloves in fact.

“Mrs. Croft left them, and Captain Wentworth, having sealed his letter with great rapidity, was indeed ready, and had even a hurried, agitated air, which shewed impatience to be gone. Anne know not how to understand it. She had the kindest "Good morning, God bless you!" from Captain Harville, but from him not a word, nor a look! He had passed out of the room without a look!

She had only time, however, to move closer to the table where he had been writing, when footsteps were heard returning; the door opened, it was himself. He begged their pardon, but he had forgotten his gloves, and instantly crossing the room to the writing table, he drew out a letter from under the scattered paper, placed it before Anne with eyes of glowing entreaty fixed on her for a time, and hastily collecting his gloves, was again out of the room, almost before Mrs. Musgrove was aware of his being in it: the work of an instant!

The revolution which one instant had made in Anne, was almost beyond expression. The letter, with a direction hardly legible, to "Miss A. E.--," was evidently the one which he had been folding so hastily.” Persuasion chapter 23.

Perhaps the gloves looked like the pair worn by this gentleman.

At any rate the question remains. Did Captain Wentworth actually forget his gloves or was this merely a ruse de guerre? Perhaps the gloves were left deliberately or maybe hidden up a sleeve. As a frigate captain Wentworth would have been familiar with many stratagems to cover his intentions. On the other hand, he was clearly in heavy weather with a lee shore emotionally. 

Please join us for what promises to be a glorious show of Regency fashions.

Feelings, Emotions and Neurons

By our speaker Wendy Jones

"I will leave you," said Elinor, [to Marianne] "if you will go to bed." But this, from the momentary perverseness of impatient suffering, she at first refused to do. Her sister's earnest, though gentle persuasion, however, soon softened her to compliance, and Elinor saw her lay her aching head on the pillow...

In the drawing-room, whither she then repaired, she was soon joined by Mrs. Jennings, with a wine-glass, full of something, in her hand."My dear," said she, entering, "I have just recollected that I have some of the finest old Constantia wine in the house that ever was tasted, so I have brought a glass of it for your sister. "Dear Ma'am," replied Elinor, ... "how good you are! But I have just left Marianne in bed, and, I hope, almost asleep; and as I think nothing will be of so much service to her as rest, if you will give me leave, I will drink the wine myself." 
Sense and Sensibility chapter 30

Event:     JASNA CWNY May Meeting

Speaker: Wendy Jones, author of Jane on the Brain: Exploring the Science of Intelligence with Jane Austen

When:    Saturday May 19, 2018 at 1 pm

Where:   Pittsford Barnes and Noble, Community Room

One of the reasons Jane Austen’s novels have retained their popularity is that her characters are so real. They come alive not because of what they do, but because of what they think and feel. Each of them exists in a small society of “three or four families in a country village”, and each of them interacts intensely with the people in that little society. Some, like Edmund Bertram, haven’t a clue about what is going on. Others, like Elinor Dashwood, are intensely aware of the feelings and emotions of other characters, although Elinor is certainly able to enjoy a glass of the finest old Constantia wine while dealing with Marianne's suffering. Jane Austen's characters all exhibit varying degrees of social intelligence, and Jane Austen perfectly captures the state of their minds as they navigate their social surroundings.

Two hundred years after Jane Austen wrote her novels, psychologists and neurobiologists have a much better, although still very incomplete, understanding of how humans respond to their social and physical environments. In her book Jane on the Brain: Exploring the Science of Social Intelligence with Jane Austen, Wendy Jones examines the psychology of Jane Austen’s characters, drawing on the basics of anatomy and physiology. She brings a solid basis of biological science to understanding the feelings and emotions exhibited by Jane Austen’s characters. She writes:

“As far as I know, all the books that discuss Austen’s fiction or her appeal invoke the psychology of her characters in one way or another. My book is no exception. But I go one step further, discussing her characters in depth but with a difference, peering beneath the surface of the mind into the anatomy and neurochemistry of the brain… I look at social intelligence through the psychological analysis of Austen’s characters, but then turn the page to find what lies beneath in the physiology.”

Wendy Jones will be the speaker at our May meeting. She is currently a psychotherapist practicing in Ithaca, NY. She has a PhD in English Literature from Cornell University, and she has worked as a Senior Lecturer and a Fellow at the Society for the Humanities at Cornell. She spoke at the most recent AGM in Huntington Beach CA, and I was fortunate to hear her very insightful talk “Empathic Austen: Every Reader’s Forever Friend”.

Please join us to learn more about Jane Austen and the science of social intelligence.